A Gambian mother and her breastfeeding child have died while trying to reach Europe on a migrant boat.

The deceased woman who is identified as Yassin was reported to have taken permission from her husband that she is travelling to Dakar, Senegal. 

However, she instead boarded a migrant boat bound for Europe with the hope of a better life. 

“She was a young mother. She told her husband that she is going to Dakar. But after travelling for three days her husband didn’t hear from her [and become] worried.

“Just one of these days that someone called the brother of the woman to tell him his younger sister died along with two other young women [on a migrant boat],” a woman who does not want to be named in the media told Gambiana in Abuko.

Her death has shocked many people including her family and friends.

It’s not clear if she was onboard the boat from Senegal that was found recently drifting off the coast of Cape Verde after it ran into trouble. 

More than 60 migrants mainly from Senegal are believed to have died. And 38 survivors including four children between the ages of 12 and 16 were rescued by the Cape Verdian navy. 

Reporting by Adama Makasuba